ITHACA, N.Y. — The women's squash team will attempt to win the third Kurtz Cup in program history when it competes at the College Squash Association's 'B' Division national championship this weekend in greater Hartford, Connecticut.
 
The Kurtz Cup features the nation's ninth- through 16th-ranked teams, and Cornell (5-10) enters the weekend ranked third in the bracket and 11th overall in the country. That lands the Big Red a quarterfinal match against No. 14 George Washington (4-13) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Trinity's Kellner Squash Center.
 
The Big Red finished eighth in the Howe Cup last season, marking its 10th straight season making the top flight of the CSA's national championships. After starting the year ranked eighth in the nation, Cornell slid down four spots in December after a loss to then-No. 12 Virginia. The Big Red came close to several victories that would have moved it up the rankings and quite possibly but into the top eight, but it dropped 5-4 decisions against No. 6 Penn, No. 8 Drexel and No. 9 Dartmouth.
 
Cornell, which won its last two Kurtz Cup appearances in 2007 and 2008, starts play against a George Washington squad it swept, 9-0, on Jan. 25 in Washington. It improved the Big Red's all-time record against the Colonials to 7-0. It will be the first-ever postseason meeting between the programs, who started competing against each other in 2003.
 
Freshman Steph Tan leads the team in victories with an 8-3 record from the lower rungs of the ladder and both freshman Lily Zelov (No. 2) and sophomore Mimi deLisser (No. 6) are 7-7 overall. Freshman Siva Subramaniam started competition in late January and has instantly become one of the top competitors across women's college squash, winning six of seven matches from the No. 1 position.
 
Two of the other three Kurtz Cup quarterfinals, No. 9 Dartmouth vs. No. 16 Amherst and No. 10 Virginia vs. No. 15 Middlebury, will run simultaneous to the action between Cornell and GW. The first quarterfinal of the day pits No. 12 Brown vs. No. 13 Williams at 4 p.m. The winner of Cornell's match and the Virginia/Middlebury match will square off against each other in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The losers will play at 2 p.m. Saturday in the consolation semifinals. All of the Kurtz Cup's matches will be staged at Kellner Squash Center with the exception of Sunday's 13^th- and 15^th-place matches, which are scheduled for Wesleyan's Rosenbaum Squash Center in Middletown, Connecticut.